Thursday, February 10, 2011

Scott Stringer - the Manhattan borough president and prospective 2013 mayoral candidate - is out with a statement slamming Bloomberg for "outrageous" comments about pension payments he'd like the city to stop paying.

It's a milder criticism than Bloomberg got from police and fire union leaders yesterday, who called him a "liar" and other unflattering things.

At issue are $12,000 annual payments the city makes to uniformed retirees from what's known as the Variable Supplement Fund. Officers with more than 20 years on the force receive them. Bloomberg has called the payments a "Christmas bonus," and therefore, a perk that can be taken away in a budget crunch. Union members say it's part of their pension, and therefore, can't.

Having to takes sides on the issue is problematic for most officials, particularly those expected to run for mayor: angry unions on one side, angry taxpayers on the other.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn - who has strong ties to unions and the mayor - hasn't publicly stated her position, saying she needs to speak with her colleagues on the Council. A spokesman for City Comptroller John Liu - whose work looking over the city's finances will play a large role in any future campaign - said he's "extremely concerned with any proposal that breaks a promise" made to these retirees.

In a statement, sent to me by a spokeswoman, Stringer takes a shot at Bloomberg, but doesn't come out definitely on whether the city should keep the payment plan in place, which city officials say cost NYC about $1 billion a year. (Unions say the city got cash and concessions decades ago that more than make up for it.)

Here's Stringer:

“I am becoming increasingly concerned about the tone and direction the Mayor is taking as it relates to union negotiations and a discussion around pensions. To characterize the Variable Supplement Fund benefit as it relates to the men and women of our police and fire departments as a “Christmas bonus” is simply outrageous. When you throw mud, it splatters. We need a serious conversation between City Hall, our labor leaders and Albany about pension reform. In a time of serious fiscal crisis, we’re going to need collective sacrifice. Grandstanding, bomb throwing and divisive accusations by City Hall will undermine the fiscal soundness of this city.”

Thursday, February 10, 2011

"Increase the student performance, you'll win a grant,"Cuomo says in this clip from his speech at Hofstra yesterday. He went on to say, "And let's also reward good managers who are actually finding efficiencies."

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Rep. Chris Lee - a married Republican from upstate - announced he's resigning from congress following the "profound" mistake he made contacting a woman on Craigslist.

It's not the first time a career has ended thanks to the private exploits of a public official first reported by a not-so-mainstream media outlet.

Gawker published emails they say were between Lee - sent from a private account - and a woman who posted an ad on Craigslist. A spokesman for Lee first suggested the emails could been the result of someone hacking into his account.

But there was also the topless photo of the congressman, which seemed like a smoking gun.

Gawker has made a concerted effort to concentrate on original reporting, and not just being a site of well-written recaps of other people's work. They - along with Columbia Journalism Review - FOILed David Paterson's emails - something I had marginal success at.

It only took Gawker one item to end Lee's career, whereas the National Enquirer spent years chasing John Edwards around the country, and put his extramarital affair on their front page and inside their paper, numerous times before the mainstream media caught on.

Gawker did this by simply having the goods. The emails. The photos. Basically, that was all you needed. The National Enquirer had unnamed sources, blurry photos, much less traction with the MSM.

If there's a lesson from the Chris Lee & Gawker episode it's that any web site can end a career; any web site can get the goods. If, you know, they have sources and good info.

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

On the morning of Friday, January 14, a single 34-year-old woman put an ad in the "Women for Men" section of Craigslist personals. "Will someone prove to me not all CL men look like toads?" she asked, inviting "financially & emotionally secure" men to reply.

That afternoon, a man named Christopher Lee replied. He used a Gmail account that Rep. Christopher Lee has since confirmed to be his own. (It's the same Gmail account that was associated with Lee's personal Facebook account, which the Congressman deleted when we started asking questions.)

By email, Lee identified himself as a 39-year-old divorced lobbyist and sent a PG picture to the woman from the ad. (In fact, Lee is married and has one son with his wife. He's also 46.)

I'm waiting for a comment from Lee's spokesman. More on the story here.

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Before the police and firemen's union called Bloomberg a "liar," the mayor told reporters his efforts to scale back the $12,000 annual payments to retired uniformed workers is an important part of the city's budget that needs to be addressed, soon.

We certainly didn’t put out anything that is to the best of my knowledge not accurate and true, so an allegation that it’s misinformation, I don’t know how to respond. If I saw their individual complaints, fine. Nobody wants to get cut back, I understand that, we have to make a decision. Do we want to send out Christmas bonuses or have more teachers? It’s that kind of decision, it doesn’t have to be those particular employees or that particular expense the city has...The question is how we’re going to continue to provide the services people want without raising taxes."

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

The rally Thursday Wednesday morning was unusual for its tenor and tone. Cassidy and Lynch repeated referred to Bloomberg as dishonest, a "liar" and characterized his move as an effort to "steal" money from their members. While the mayor has sometimes been at odds with different unions, today's comments were among the harshest he's received in years.

"We did endorse the mayor in the past election," said Lynch of the policeman's union, "and we're calling him a liar today because he's saying lies in the public."

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Mayor Bloomberg didn’t need to be called out by name for everyone to understand at whom this salvo was aimed. After a decade of decision-making that rarely welcomed and often ignored public comment, it’s not just a narrow sliver of jilted parents, ideological progressives and good government groups who are tired of the mayor’s style. The controversy following Cathie Black’s appointment was as much about the secretive process as about the ill-prepared appointee. Following the questions about the mayor’s whereabouts during the December blizzard, City Council is considering legislation that require him to “sign out” when he leaves the city. Even the mayor sensed the public’s restlessness, which is why he dedicated real estate in his own annual address to the concept of “crowdsourcing,” suggesting he was more willing to listen to the public.

Stringer doesn’t need to run against Mayor Bloomberg, which is fortunate for him. Even the pugnacious Anthony Weiner was finally intimidated by Bloomberg’s moneyed and massive campaign machine last time around. But New Yorkers are ready for more elected officials to challenge the mayor. The Progressive Caucus of the City Council has been finding its voice. The Public Advocate had been vocal in calling out the mayor over the past two months of controversies. And Borough President Stringer — while being careful not to paint the mayor as an adversary, and while being respectful of what Bloomberg has achieved — has laid out a different approach to governing that New Yorkers need to remember can exist.

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Police and firemen's unions are rallying in order to stop what they say is Bloomberg's "misinformation" campaign about their pension payments.

The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and the Uniformed Firefighter's Association announced they were rallying later this morning on the City Hall steps "to fight the mayor's orchestrated misinformation campaign to reduce police and fire pension benefits."

Bloomberg has referred to the $12,000 payments given to retired uniformed workers as a "bonus" the city can no longer afford - and stopping it could spare the city from laying off "thousands" of public school teachers (see how he connects those two issues).

The unions say the payments are part of their pension - not an addition to it - and is the result of a decade's old deal struck when the unions gave hundreds of millions of dollars to help the city when it was in a financial crunch.

It's unclear if the alterations to the payments - called the Variable Supplement Fund - require a vote in the City Council prior to action from the state (which has final say on the matter). Requiring the Democratically-controlled City Council to vote on it - in a procedure called a "home rule message - could be problematic, since many have close ties to the unions.

But Bloomberg told reporters in Albany earlier this week he's confident it would pass.

"I think the City Council is going to have to sit there and say, '10,000 teachers or a home rule message.' That seems to me something that'll carry pretty quickly, but i don't even think it's needed," Bloomberg said.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Mayor Bloomberg delivers testimony before the Joint Session of the Assembly Ways and Means and the Senate Finance Committees about impact of proposed state budget on New York City. February 07, 2011 (edward reed / nyc.gov)

Senior Advisor Howard Wolfson offers this comment when asked about Mayor Bloomberg testifying before a grand jury about campaign operative John Haggerty illegally obtaining nearly $1 million of the mayor's money during the 2009 campaign.

"The Mayor was asked to testify regarding the DA’s allegations that money was stolen from him and he did."

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

City Record - now available online - has long been a must-read for any dogged reporter looking (the old fashion way) for granular-level information about city government.

Now that it's online, you can do fun things like read it on an iPad (anybody, please, send me a picture of that!) and, more importantly, you can search the entire document for key words, like "salary" and "resigned."

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Jay Jacobs went from being Nassau County Chairman, to NYS Chairman, thanks to David Paterson. (azi paybarah / wnyc)

Page Six sent tremors through New York Democratic circles this morning with a blind item saying the head of the party, Jay Jacobs, was getting replaced by one of Governor Cuomo confidents, Charlie King.

The item included a terse-sounding comment from an unnamed Cuomo's spokesperson who said "Not true."

Of course it's unclear what exactly the "not true" means: "Not true at the moment" or "Not true; Jacobs has the full support of the governor and we have no plans to install King in his place."

Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto did not respond to an emailed request for elaboration. An email to Simon Brandler, who handled press for the state party during the campaign, bounced back. A telephone message left for King at the state party's office was not immediately returned. Jacobs said he did not want to comment publicly.

Jacobs went from Nassau County Chairman to State Party Chairman, thanks to support he got from Governor Cuomo's predecessor, David Paterson. Jacobs was re-elected to a 2-year term this past September.

The money is "sorely needed in the fact of looming budget cuts," says Liu. He also noted the Department of Finance wasn't entirely helpful during this audit.They "handed over limited information" and spent $575,000 "to hire an outside consultant" to do a "similar" review as Liu was conducted of the agency.

An additional $785,730 went uncollected because the city did not return to the tax rolls 19 businesses that participated in the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program.

While it's true the city is looking in every corner for money - the $3.3 million Liu found palls in comparison to the more than $2 billion Mayor Bloomberg says the city needs to make up for cuts heading their way from Albany.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Michael Bloomberg has learned a lesson from his congestion pricing battle: don't force NYC Council members to take a controversial vote on legislation that ultimately is decided in Albany, if the legislators in Albany aren't promising to vote on the same bill.

This issue may come up as Bloomberg asks state lawmakers to allow him to cancel $12,000 supplemental payments to uniformed retirees. When Bloomberg mentioned it during his testimony in Albany yesterday, one state senator asked if a "home rule" message from the NYC Council was needed.

“I don’t know if it’s necessary” Bloomberg told the committee. “I can tell you this. Unless you tell us you’ll do it, I’m not going to fight that battle. I was asked by the legislature, with congestion pricing, to come up with a home rule message. We did,” and, Bloomberg said those City Council members who took a vote on the controversial bill were left “twisting in the wind” because state lawmakers never followed up with a vote on the same legislation.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

While Bloomberg was in Albany, I asked him what he thought of the study that found 41 percent of pregnancies in New York City ended in abortion.

"I have no idea if that's an accurate number or not. I just don't know," he said.

The report was announced by a group that included Archbishop Timothy Dolan. Bloomberg aides took a more nuanced view of the figure, according to this New York Times story.

[C]ity health officials and groups that support access to abortion say that behind the 41 percent statistic — nearly twice the national rate — are complex social and legal factors: fewer obstacles to abortion in state law; the absence of mandatory sex education in New York City public schools; the ignorance of people, especially young ones, about where to get affordable birth control; and the ambivalence of young women living in poverty and in unstable relationships about when and whether to have children.

UPDATE: About that methodology. The study says their findings hold up, even when calculated by the method used by the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights organization. A spokesperson for the Guttmacher Institute told me they too come up with a 41% abortion rate for NYC.

Monday, February 07, 2011

Mayor Bloomberg has made eliminating a $12,000 payment to uniformed firefighters and police officers a key push in his 2011 Albany legislative agenda.

He's gone as far to say that eliminating that payment could save thousands of teachers from being laid off. But when in Albany, the mayor was asked if a home rule message - a formal request from a local legislative body to state lawmakers - would be forthcoming on this.

Bloomberg said it probably wasn't needed. Bloomberg also said it's a controversial move and he would not be inclined to encourage City Council members to vote on a controversial piece of legislation if there was no guarantee that state lawmakers would also vote on it (which happened with congestion pricing).

In a Q&A with reporters after his testimony, Bloomberg reiterated a home rule message on eliminating the $12,000 payment - something he's dubbed a "bonus" - would not be needed. The mayor said he didn't know "why" the home rule message would be needed, he told reporters. But if it was needed, the mayor said it would likely pass, once legislators (and the public) understood it was needed to save thousands of teacher jobs.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who testified about the budget here in Albany after Bloomberg, said a home rule message on the $12,000 payments probably was needed.

"It would most likely, yes, need a home rule message," said Quinn. "My sense is we would need one."

Monday, February 07, 2011

Mayor Bloomberg told state lawmakers it's up to them to push for congestion pricing, or whatever alternative they can come up with. Because he won't.

During the mayor's testimony in Albany about the governor's budget, Bloomberg was asked what he thought about congestion pricing this year. The bill, which he heavily lobbied for in 2007, was narrowly passed in the New York City Council, and was sent up to Albany.

It died in the Assembly when the Democratic conference decided not to let the bill out of committee. (It's unclear if there were enough votes for it to pass the Republican-controlled State Senate).

"I'm not going to come back and fight that battle," said Bloomberg, citing the political risk City Council members took in supporting it, only to see it die in Albany without a vote.

Later, when asked if congestion pricing as a "dead" issue, Bloomberg told reporters it's up to state lawmakers to come up with a way to fund the state's mass transit's needs, saying, he is "not going to stand up and campaign for it."

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